The reasons why your cat keeps you awake at night.

This one used to be an absolute nightmare for me and my family. Our cat would sleep all day and then when we were ready for bed it would decide to get up. This would be absolutely fine if it wasn’t for the fact it wanted attention, food and to make as much commotion as possible! So this brings us round to the question:

Why does my cat keep me awake at night?

There are a few different reasons why your cat may be keeping you awake at night. The most important one to remember is that it is in the genes.

Cats are nocturnal.

Our feline friends originated from African wild cats a long time ago. This means that it is in their blood to be nocturnal amimals (active during the night). Unlike us who are diurnal (mainly active during the day). They are active in the night because it is easier to hunt in the dark.

This is built into them and is something that cannot be changed. However there are things that we can do to minimise this pattern of behaviour.

Tire your cat out before bed.

Cats absolutely love playing. An hour or so before you are going to go to bed gets your cats favourite toys and play with it. If you have some toy animals on string this is perfect! Your cat will get the feeling of hunting and pouncing on prey which will stop its urge.

The other bonus effect of this is that the playing will actually tire your cat and make it feel fulfilled. It will soon be cosied up asleep at the end of your bed again.

Your cat may keep you awake because it is hungry.

As the title says, your cat may be keeping you awake because it is hungry. Just like ourselves who often will get a midnight snack before bed, your cat my want something too. Also with them being nocturnal their natural time to eat is once it gets dark. There are steps we can take to change this.

Feed your cat late at night.

We found that this one worked an absolute treat with our Nipper. At first it had its tea when we ate ours but by bed time it was playing up. So what we did was give it a large meal per day always an hour before we went to bed.

Just like when we eat a large meal we get sleepy and want to chill out and sleep it off. Our cats are the same and we found that Nipper would lay down and go to sleep after having its late tea!

When you use this technique as well as the first one of tiring your cat out you should find that it does not keep you awake. It is all about trying to break the cycle and change the cats routine.

Make sure to feed it before you go to bed though instead of letting it tell you when it’s hungry as you try sleep. This will certainly get it into the habit of waking you up for some late night feasting!

Get an automatic timed feeder.

These inventions are absolutely awesome. We use ours and set it for during the day when we are out at work. You can set the time that you want it to produce food for your cat and it will work for a night feed also. By doing this your cat will learn that it will get some food at a certain point in the night when you are asleep. Meaning that it will not keep pestering you for food! If you would like to see the blog review I wrote of the one I use then have a look at this link. It was easily the best model after trying 4 other alternative ones that were absolutely crap!

In conclusion….

Follow the steps in this guide to get your cat asleep at the right time.

Your cat keeps you awake at night because of the reasons I told you about earlier in this post. But it can be curbed if not totally stopped by following the steps I mentioned.

You may not see instant changes from following the about steps but over time your cat will learn not to disturb you when you are trying to sleep. Whatever you do though do not give your cat attention when you are trying to sleep. If you do this it will learn that all it has to do is play up and you will give in to its demands.

I really hope this guide has helped you in some way and hopefully now you will be on your way to a good nights sleep!